August 4, 2006: Toronto
It was a beautiful day – not too hot or humid. Debbie went out for a run this morning with one of our hosts. At breakfast, we discussed our other host’s brother, who moved to Michigan, and the terrible state of the roads there. I lamented the self-destructive American tendency to avoid paying for the repair of infrastructure until it has already harmed our economy. We also talked about their daughter’s budding feminism (she was outraged by Kate’s treatment in a stage production of The Taming of the Shrew) and recommended she visit the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls.
We rode the subway, part of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), from the Coxwell stop to Yorkville, a tony, trendy central district of the city. Toronto was originally called York.
On the way there, we got an earful of complaints about the mismanagement and labor woes the transit system is experiencing, including a recent wildcat strike that brought the city to a near-standstill on a very hot day. Most Torontonians feel that the subway’s promotional slogan, “Ride the Rocket,” is positively risible. No one calls it “the Rocket.” It impressed me, however, as reasonably clean and efficient.
This cleanliness is probably a product of general Canadian civic-mindedness rather than an ill-conceived anti-litter campaign that portrays riders as pigs.
In Yorkville we visited the first of two rather unusual collections: the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library, a beautiful room full of books, manuscripts, journals, and memorabilia related to the prolific British author of the Sherlock Holmes series.
I talked with the librarian about a few of the many facets of Doyle’s life, including his several trips to Canada, his influence on science fiction, his fascination with spiritualism, and his friendship with Harry Houdini. The relationship ended in a bitter feud over the subject of the supernatural, which Houdini was committed to debunking.
The Toronto Public Library is the largest in Canada and, we are informed, the largest public library in North America if gauged by the number of branches (99) and by the number of items circulated every year (around 30 million). It’s the second busiest library in the world if rated by number of visits, exceeded only by the Hong Kong Public Library. Seattle's public libraries, while not quite as busy, are very well patronized, and our massive, high-tech Central Library, designed by a controversial Dutchman, Rem Koolhaas, is an acclaimed architectural landmark worthy of a visit by librarians and non-librarians alike.
We were interested to learn that our librarian friend would soon be competing with a crew of librarians in Toronto's annual dragon boat races. The team chose a whimsical name for themselves: "The Dewey Decimators." The races will take place at Ontario Place, three manmade islands on Lake Ontario just offshore from Toronto, which we rode a ferry to see on our last visit to the city.
We walked down Bloor Street past the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum (affectionately known as ROM), currently undergoing a radical Daniel Libeskind redesign.
The renowned architect, who also designed the controversial replacement for Manhattan’s World Trade Center, envisions a crystal growing out of the old museum.
We stopped for doughnuts and coffee at Tim Hortons, a wildly-popular Canadian chain.
Our second offbeat collection of the day was the Bata Shoe Museum, another large postmodern building that bears a resemblance to a shoebox. It’s devoted to the history of footwear, from its ancient origins to Michael Jordan’s Nikes, an odd combination of cross-cultural anthropology and celebrity worship. The shoes of many greats were there – John Lennon, Pablo Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Mikhail Barishnikov, Winston Churchill, John McEnroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and more – together with special exhibits on famous shoe designers as well as Chinese and Native American footwear.
In the evening, we traveled via subway and bus to Little Italy, where we joined the locals at a very authentic eatery, followed by gelato at a nearby gelateria. It was a perfect way to end the day.
We rode the subway, part of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), from the Coxwell stop to Yorkville, a tony, trendy central district of the city. Toronto was originally called York.
On the way there, we got an earful of complaints about the mismanagement and labor woes the transit system is experiencing, including a recent wildcat strike that brought the city to a near-standstill on a very hot day. Most Torontonians feel that the subway’s promotional slogan, “Ride the Rocket,” is positively risible. No one calls it “the Rocket.” It impressed me, however, as reasonably clean and efficient.
This cleanliness is probably a product of general Canadian civic-mindedness rather than an ill-conceived anti-litter campaign that portrays riders as pigs.
In Yorkville we visited the first of two rather unusual collections: the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library, a beautiful room full of books, manuscripts, journals, and memorabilia related to the prolific British author of the Sherlock Holmes series.
I talked with the librarian about a few of the many facets of Doyle’s life, including his several trips to Canada, his influence on science fiction, his fascination with spiritualism, and his friendship with Harry Houdini. The relationship ended in a bitter feud over the subject of the supernatural, which Houdini was committed to debunking.
The Toronto Public Library is the largest in Canada and, we are informed, the largest public library in North America if gauged by the number of branches (99) and by the number of items circulated every year (around 30 million). It’s the second busiest library in the world if rated by number of visits, exceeded only by the Hong Kong Public Library. Seattle's public libraries, while not quite as busy, are very well patronized, and our massive, high-tech Central Library, designed by a controversial Dutchman, Rem Koolhaas, is an acclaimed architectural landmark worthy of a visit by librarians and non-librarians alike.We were interested to learn that our librarian friend would soon be competing with a crew of librarians in Toronto's annual dragon boat races. The team chose a whimsical name for themselves: "The Dewey Decimators." The races will take place at Ontario Place, three manmade islands on Lake Ontario just offshore from Toronto, which we rode a ferry to see on our last visit to the city.
We walked down Bloor Street past the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum (affectionately known as ROM), currently undergoing a radical Daniel Libeskind redesign.
The renowned architect, who also designed the controversial replacement for Manhattan’s World Trade Center, envisions a crystal growing out of the old museum.
We stopped for doughnuts and coffee at Tim Hortons, a wildly-popular Canadian chain.
Our second offbeat collection of the day was the Bata Shoe Museum, another large postmodern building that bears a resemblance to a shoebox. It’s devoted to the history of footwear, from its ancient origins to Michael Jordan’s Nikes, an odd combination of cross-cultural anthropology and celebrity worship. The shoes of many greats were there – John Lennon, Pablo Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Mikhail Barishnikov, Winston Churchill, John McEnroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and more – together with special exhibits on famous shoe designers as well as Chinese and Native American footwear.
In the evening, we traveled via subway and bus to Little Italy, where we joined the locals at a very authentic eatery, followed by gelato at a nearby gelateria. It was a perfect way to end the day.
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